Are polygonal Pokemon cuter than sprites?

Poll: Are polygonal Pokemon cuter than sprites? (85 votes)

Yes, they are cuter 72%

No, sprites were cuter 7%

More or less the same 19%

The question is in the title.

I picked up Y this week since it seems like the consensus is that the games are good this generation, however, I was wholly unprepared for how cute the Pokemon are in the beginning of the game. Now, I've seen a polygonal Pikachu before and it's cuteness was well known to me, but I've let out multiple audible "awws" upon encountering the likes of Azurill, Litleo, Combee, Charmander, Squirtle, Torchic, and numerous others. I think it has to do with the idle animations, which are all just great. My Azurill, for example, bounces up and down on her tail-ball and just looks so goddamn happy the whole time that I don't even want to battle. And that's to say nothing of Pokemon-amie, which is even cuter since you can pet your Pokemon and give them little eclair-like treats and they nibble on them and it's so adorable. Anyone else feel the same?

The animation is really what does it. They can really bring out the cuteness. Azurill in particular has a design that I always thought was sort of dumb, but which totally works for me when animated. Since this amount of animation would be darn near impossible with sprites, I think the move to polygonal graphics was the right choice.

it's the animation as well as the graphics, but in addition to that I think that they really made sure to make the pokemon feel more like creatures in this game, especially with stuff like Pokemon-amie allowing you to pet/feed them.

Although, weren't most of the pokemon (Gen III and below) Given polygonal models for the gamecube games? I've foudn them to be very similar. I don't think they looked like garbage, but they're okay.

Although in general I prefer sprites to polygons any day of the week. Man, if Pokemon got some mode 7...

The real difference comes down to the animations. From a pure graphics standpoint you might say they look similar, but actually watching the game in action everything feels completely soulless and lifeless.

@colourful_hippie: Sorry, when I typed Black/White/2 I meant Black and White and 2. I fell off after Diamond/Pearl. The reason the annual fee seems kinda silly to me is because these games don't even come out on an annual basis. At least not yet.

@colourful_hippie: Sorry, when I typed Black/White/2 I meant Black and White and 2. I fell off after Diamond/Pearl. The reason the annual fee seems kinda silly to me is because these games don't even come out on an annual basis. At least not yet.

It could be a monthly fee instead. Since you can store Pokemon in the bank indefinitely it wouldn't have surprised me if it had been.

I remember being baffled when Black and White screens began to emerge and the battles were still sprite-based, but now, remembering how dicey some 3D games looked on the DS and seeing how good these polygonal pokemon look on the 3DS, I'm really glad they waited. I think this was the perfect edition for the transition. They've really done the designs justice with the cel-shaded look.

I will say, though, that not all previous 3D renditions of pokemon have been hot garbage: popped pokemon stadium into my N64 relatively recently for a nostalgia trip, and I'm still pretty impressed with how that game looks.